How a reference is built in Harvard
Commonly used in: uk, australian and many international universities.
Journal article
Surname, Initial. and Surname, Initial. (Year) ‘Title of article’, Journal Title, volume(issue), pp. 00–00. Available at: https://doi.org/….
Book
Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of the book. 3rd edn. Place: Publisher.
A real example
Kucsko, G. et al. (2013) ‘Nanometre-scale thermometry in a living cell’, Nature, 500(7460), pp. 54–58. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12373.
In-text citation
(Kucsko et al., 2013)
(Surname, Year). Four or more authors: first author and “et al.”
Worth knowing
- Harvard is not one fixed standard. This is the Cite Them Right version, which most universities that say “Harvard” mean. Check your handbook if yours publishes its own: the commonest differences are the place of publication (the 13th edition of Cite Them Right drops it, and this follows the 12th, which keeps it), “article number 14045” where the 13th writes “article 14045”, “edn.” against “ed.”, and whether the reference list may use “et al.” at all.
- Add a page number for a direct quotation: (Kucsko et al., 2013, p. 55).